Sylmar man held on $1M bail in wife’s shooting death

A 59-year-old Sylmar man who told police he had been drinking heavily Monday evening was booked on suspicion of murder, accused of fatally shooting his wife in the home they shared for at least 25 years, police said Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014.
Photo by Olga Grigoryants/Los Angeles Daily News

A 59-year-old Sylmar man who told police he had been drinking heavily Monday evening was booked on suspicion of murder, accused of fatally shooting his wife in the home they shared for at least 25 years, police said Tuesday.

The victim, 45-year-old Maria Morales, was shot multiple times about 9 p.m. Monday in the 14000 block of Herron Street, said Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department Mission Division. She died at the scene.

The couple’s son, who is in his 20s, called police to report the shooting after he heard several gunshots inside the house.

“He reported to 9-1-1 and the first officers to arrive that his father was shooting a gun and his mother and sister were in the house,” Vernon said. “Given that information, the officers made immediate and rapid entry to the house.”

Upon arrival, officers located the woman in the living room. The suspect, Albino Topete Morales, was found lying on a mattress in a bedroom with a loaded .45-caliber Colt pistol and a note handwritten in Spanish next to it, Vernon said.

Morales was taken into custody without incident and is being held downtown in lieu of $1 million bail.

No other family members were injured, and details of what led to the shooting were not available, though the bullets reached beyond the couple’s home.

“This shooting could have been much worse, as at least one bullet passed from one house into the neighbor’s house, through several walls, narrowly missing the resident,” Vernon said. “Also, as is so common, alcohol played a part in the shooting. The suspect admitted he had been drinking heavily this evening.”

In a press release Tuesday, detectives said they will trace the ownership and origin of the gun, as well as determine if the couple has a history of domestic violence.

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News of the killing shocked neighbors. “I understand he drank, but I never saw him violent,” said Albert Hernandez, 58, who lives across the street from the couple and recently chatted with the suspect.

“I know he didn’t work for about 15 years, but I never saw him arguing with his wife. She was very mellow and a very quiet woman. I don’t know what’s the reason (of the shooting), and I can’t even speculate.”

Hernandez arrived home on Monday night to find his street cordoned off by police. His wife told him she heard three or four gunshots from the house across the street and then saw police and paramedics arriving.

“It’s sad,” said another neighbor, who declined to give her name. “I guess they had marital problems or something.”

On Tuesday afternoon, a young woman who would say only that she is the couple’s daughter hurried out of the one-story house, no longer roped off, and into her car.

Hernandez just shook his head. “It’s a shame that it happened,” he said of the shooting. “She was a nice lady.”